Devices for playing compact disks, also known as CD changers, are used mainly in motor vehicles, and offer a user-friendly possibility for playing different compact discs from a compact-disk supply stored in the magazine.
Keeping the compact disks available in a magazine permits small dimensions of the total device. Moreover, such a magazine can be fitted with compact disks in an easy, clearly arranged manner. It can also be easily produced.
The magazine and the playback unit directly influence the design of the device for playing compact disks. For example, the external-dimension measurements of the entire device, the resistance to vibration and the manufacturing expenditure are essentially dependent on the design and mounting of the magazine and the playback unit.
Devices for playing compact disks for motor vehicles are known, in which both the magazine and the playback unit and its adjusting mechanism are rigidly coupled during the operation of the device, and this total unit is suspended in a freely swinging manner with respect to the housing (compare FIG. 2). This type of suspension permits a relatively narrow type of construction of the device for playing compact disks, since a compact disk to be played does not have to be pulled completely out of the magazine, and therefore only has to carry out small movements. Since, however, an unencumbered swing space is necessary even for these movements, individual compartments of the magazine must have a relatively great height, which in turn leads to a great overall height of the total device. Moreover, the resistance to vibrations is problematical in such a device, since the playback unit is not decoupled, e.g., by an elastic suspension mount or the like, from the remaining mechanism which is susceptible to vibrations.
To meet this problem, conventional systems elastically suspend only the actual playback unit. The advantage of such devices is elastic decoupling from the mechanism susceptible to vibrations. Moreover, the playback unit also has a very close structural relationship to devices for playing single compact disks, so-called single disk drives. By slight modification, these disk drives can be employed for insertion in devices for playing compact disks in CD changers.
One specific embodiment of such a conventional device for playing compact disks includes a magazine, rigidly supported in the housing, having relatively narrow holding compartments for the compact disks. To play a compact disk, it is completely pulled out of the magazine, so that the necessary unencumbered movement or swing space is assured in each case for the compact disk. To be sure, this specific embodiment permits a relatively flat, but at the same time very wide design of the entire device.
In another conventional device for playing compact disks, in which only the playback unit is elastically supported, provision is made for a push-action magazine, in which case those compact disks which lie opposite the playback unit during the playing of a compact disk can be pushed out of the way of the compact disk to be played, in order to form an unencumbered swing space for the compact disk that is to be played. Such a device requires that the magazine be equipped with an appropriate translatory shifting mechanism. Problematical in this case, is that a very costly mechanism is necessary for such a magazine construction, particularly if the intention is to keep the external-dimension measurements of the whole device compact.